DC Record Fair Moves to Arlington, Draws Record Crowds

The Vinyl District switched things up a bit this year, crossed the Key Bridge and held its quarterly DC Record Fair at Artisphere in Rosslyn yesterday.

Jon, who lives and breaths organizing The Vinyl District (and goes by his first name), along with just plain working there, said that he absolutely loved the venue, and he thought the event was a huge success. Proof? The estimated 1,000 guests and record-goers who attended, not to mention over $2,000 in profit they had already acquired by 3:30pm, with more people still steadily arriving. They would definitely look into using Artisphere for another event, Jon added.

Sunday's event included 30+ vendors from all over the East Coast, food and drinks ($5 for a glass of wine, $4 for a beer), a hefty number of DJs spinning records all afternoon, and a rather cheap entrance fee for what seemed to be such a worthwhile event ($5 before noon, $2 from noon-5pm).

Their estimation of about 1,000 attendees is nothing new for The Vinyl District organizers, who said they had about 1,500 people at The Black Cat about a year ago (but that was mostly due to the big name DJs spinning that afternoon, including Rob Garza from Thievery Corporation). Cant go big all at once, Jon noted.

Artisphere offered a nice change from some of the dimly-lit, smaller spaces The Vinyl District has used before -- your eyes followed the projectors playing weird music videos on the walls up to the high ceilings and the second floor balcony, which made the crowded ballroom space with clean wooden floors feel less claustrophobic and cramped.

All the big shot vendors came and went between 11am and noon, creating a very busy morning, Jon said. But people kept bustling in strong through the afternoon. Record and music lovers alike were very cordial and polite when squeezing in and out of each others way to investigate a new box of records or perhaps a new genre.

For those interested in who was spinning yesterday, here's a list:

11-12: Baby Alcatraz

12-1: Andrew Morgan

1-2: Meistro

2-3: Lucas Smudge

3-4: Fatback DJs

4-5: Neville C.

The DC Record Fair was organized by The Vinyl District, Som Records and DC Soul Recordings.